Ternary Therapeutics lands £3.6m seed to design molecular glues with physics-informed AI
This article covers Ternary Therapeutics, a London-based biotech startup, which has raised £3.6m in a seed funding round to develop an AI-driven platform that designs molecular glue drugs. The funding will expand scientific and engineering teams and advance preclinical programmes targeting inflammatory and neuroinflammatory conditions.
London-based biotech startup Ternary Therapeutics has raised £3.6m in a seed funding round to develop an AI-driven platform that deliberately designs molecular glue drugs — a class of small molecules that can force two proteins to bind and open new therapeutic routes for diseases that have been hard to target. The funding will be used to expand scientific and engineering teams and advance preclinical programmes aimed at inflammatory and neuroinflammatory conditions.
Why it matters
Molecular glues have traditionally been discovered by chance. If Ternary’s approach — combining machine learning, physics-based modelling and rapid experimental feedback in a closed-loop system — proves reproducible, it could turn an often serendipitous finding into a predictable engineering problem. That would widen the types of disease biology accessible to small-molecule therapeutics and potentially shorten early discovery timelines.
Inside the product
Ternary’s platform models protein movement and interactions at atomic resolution to propose candidate molecules, which are then tested experimentally and used to refine the models. The company, founded in November 2024, says this integrated cycle generates a pipeline of preclinical candidates focused on inflammatory diseases where treatment options remain limited.
Alongside internal discovery work, Ternary has established multiple research collaborations with pharmaceutical companies and specialist biotechnology partners to validate and stress-test its approach. The company frames its work as an engineering-driven alternative to chance discovery for molecular glues.
Who are the investors?
The £3.6m seed was led by daphni, with participation from Pace Ventures, i&i Biotech Fund and the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, which is managed by Future Planet Capital. The raise follows the recent launch of Daphni Blue, a €260m vehicle targeting science-driven deeptech companies, signalling continued interest in early-stage biotech innovation.
Designing molecular glues predictably is one of the hardest challenges in modern drug discovery. It requires expertise across machine learning, physics and experimental biology.
Ternary has built a platform that integrates these disciplines in a scalable and rigorous way.
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Founder perspective
Dr Chris Tame, co-founder and CEO of Ternary Therapeutics, framed the problem and the company’s aim directly.
For decades, molecular glues have been one of the most powerful ideas in drug discovery, but also one of the least predictable.
We have shown that by combining physics-informed AI with tight experimental feedback, we can design these molecules intentionally rather than waiting to discover them by luck.
This funding allows us to expand our scientific and computational teams and progress our lead programmes towards clinical development.
As part of its growth, Ternary has appointed Dr Ian Taylor to the board. Taylor was President of Research and Development at Arvinas, where he oversaw six Investigational New Drug submissions; one programme he worked on, the oestrogen receptor PROTAC vepdegestrant, is under review by the US Food and Drug Administration. He has also held senior roles at Pfizer Oncology and Bayer Pharmaceuticals and brings academic credentials from Harvard and a postdoctoral period under Nobel laureate Harold Varmus.
The bigger picture
The seed round sits at the intersection of AI-driven drug discovery and chemistry-first therapeutic approaches such as targeted protein degradation and molecular glues. If successful, Ternary’s platform would join a small but growing set of companies trying to make drug discovery more deterministic through computational methods paired with rapid experimental cycles.
This deal also reflects continued activity from European deeptech investors in early-stage biotech. As funds like Daphni Blue target science-driven startups, more seed rounds of this size are likely to follow, supporting a pipeline of companies aiming to move complex modalities from concept into the clinic.
The outcome of Ternary’s next 12–24 months of work — validation of designed molecules and progression of lead preclinical programmes — will be an early indicator of whether physics-informed AI can reliably expand the druggable genome for inflammatory and neuroinflammatory diseases across the UK and Europe.
They've invested in Ternary Therapeutics
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| Investor | Sector | Stage | Activity | Team | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Daphni | 5 investments investments | 16 contacts contacts | |||
 Pace Ventures | 4 investments investments | more info | |||
 i&i Biotech Fund | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund | 3 investments investments | more info | |||
 Future Planet Capital | 10 investments investments | 11 contacts contacts |
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